Last weekend Anime Detour welcomed 5,000 fans of anime and manga to one of the Midwest’s longest running and most well organized conventions, and for the first time, CBLDF was there! We were graciously welcomed by the convention organizers, who provided a spot for an information table, and a programming spot on Saturday morning where Ryan Matheson spoke in person about his ordeal for the first time alongside con guests of honor Greg Ayres, Richard and Shannon Townsend and Kim Pridemore from Studio O-n-Y, and Frenchy Lunning, editor of Mechademia and an important expert contributor to CBLDF casework. CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein recounts the weekend after the jump!
Author: cbldf
Thank You Seattle! The CBLDF at Emerald City Comic-Con
Emerald City Comic Con took place last weekend, and it was three days of infectious enthusiasm, excited mobs, and great comics of all varieties. The CBLDF was on hand, excited to talk to all the fans and creators that populate the Pacific Northwest. ECCC was a terrific show; well-organized, well-attended, and well-programmed.
Click through for Deputy Director Alex Cox’s re-cap of a great convention, one that earned a much-needed $6,536, to help fund our continued education work and will assist in paying down the legal fees for Ryan “Brandon X” Matheson.
Arizona Legislature Passes Sweeping Electronic Speech Censorship Bill
Yesterday, the Arizona legislature passed Arizona House Bill 2549, which would update the state’s telephone harassment law to apply to the Internet and other electronic communications. The bill is sweepingly broad, and would make it a crime to communicate via electronic means speech that is intended to “annoy,” “offend,” “harass” or “terrify,” as well as certain sexual speech. Because the bill is not limited to one-to-one communications, H.B. 2549 would apply to the Internet as a whole, thus criminalizing all manner of writing, cartoons, and other protected material the state finds offensive or annoying. The Bill is currently on Governor Jan Brewer’s desk awaiting her decision on whether to veto or sign the bill.
Media Coalition, a trade association protecting the First Amendment rights of content industries, whose membership includes CBLDF, has been active in opposing the bill. On March 14, Media Coalition sent a memo to the Senate Rules Committee regarding constitutional infirmities in H.B. 2549. Yesterday they sent a letter to Governor Brewer urging her to veto the bill.
If passed, the law could create vulnerabilities for cartoonists and publishers who publish material online intended to shock, satirize, and criticize. Beyond the example of the Mohammad cartoons listed in the Media Coalition letter, the taboo-pushing work of cartoonists like R. Crumb, Johnny Ryan, and Ivan Brunetti would potentially be vulnerable to prosecution, as could incendiary works such as Frank Miller’s Holy Terror and Dave Sim’s Cerebus. Similarly, the culture of message boards, within and beyond comics, would be imperiled. With more titles released digitally each week, and an extremely active online ecosystem of professional and fan exchange, laws like this one are extremely worrisome for the creators, publishers, and readers of comics.
CBLDF Attends Anime Detour in Minneapolis This Weekend!
This weekend the CBLDF will be setting up at Anime Detour in Minneapolis, where we’ll be presenting a talk on manga censorship, as well as setting up a table to distribute literature and accept donations. CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein will represent the Fund, and host the panel, which is set to happen on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. He’ll be joined by Ryan Matheson, who courageously spoke out for the first time about his legal ordeal in Canada earlier this month after we announced that all criminal charges against him had been dropped. They’ll be joined on the panel by Greg Ayres and Studio OnY.
Please come by the dealers room and say hello. We’ll have a booth set up offering incentives including the “Manga Is Not A Crime” button and a raffle for signed items from Yoshitaka Amano, Camilla d’Errico and more!
Anime Detour starts on Friday, March 30 and runs through Sunday, April 2 at the Doubletree by Hilton in Bloomington, MN.
Tomorrow in NYC: Gone To Amerikay Launch Party!
Gone to Amerikay, the new Vertigo original graphic novel by Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran, will have a book launch party, benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. McCulloch and Doran will both be at Harbor Lights Restaurant in New York City on March 30 from 6 to 8 pm, celebrating the release of their new book and demonstrating their support of the CBLDF’s mission. All are welcome to join the celebration; admission will be free, though donations to the CBLDF are suggested. There will be complimentary hors d’oeurves, and special guests from the comics community will be on hand to inaugurate Gone to Amerikay. Copies of the book will be on sale, courtesy of Midtown Comics.
THIS WEEKEND ONLY: Becky Cloonan & Brian Wood Thank CBLDF Members With A Free CONAN Print!
Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan are thanking CBLDF members by offering this signed, CBLDF exclusive letterpress print featuring work from their run on Conan!
This weekend only, members joining (or rejoining) at the Supporter level, will receive, along with the standard Membership package, this exclusive print, signed by artist Becky Cloonan, and writer Brian Wood, while supplies last. An article about the creation of this beautiful, hand-pressed print can be found here. Quantities are limited, and this thank you offer ends Monday at midnight, or when supplies run out, so join now!
Know Your Rights — Tools For Travelers Crossing International Borders
Last week, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced that criminal charges had been dropped in R. v. Matheson, a case involving an American manga reader who was wrongly accused of importing child pornography into Canada because of comic book images on his laptop. Ryan was extensively, wrongfully searched and detained by the Canadian government who charged him with a crime before he even entered the country. Read the story in his own words here. The CBLDF provided financial and substantive legal support in his case, and is currently fundraising to help restore Ryan’s $45,000 legal debt.
While the good news is that Ryan’s ordeal is now over, the bad news is that this kind of prosecution can happen again. To help travelers crossing borders with comics, the CBLDF is pleased to offer important resources that you should read before you cross a foreign border. These tools aren’t designed to take the place of your lawyer. Nothing in them is intended as legal advice. But they are important overviews of the concerns travelers now face when crossing borders with comic art in printed form and on their digital devices, and must reading for everyone in those situations.
WonderCon Reaches New Heights For CBLDF!
Last weekend big crowds mobbed the Anaheim Convention Center for WonderCon, the long-running California show that’s become a favorite on the comics convention circuit. This year’s event marked the first time the con was held in Southern California after years as a mainstay of the Bay Area comics culture, but the new market didn’t diminish the crowds or excitement of the show. Attendance was extremely strong throughout the con’s three days. At the end of the weekend, contributions to CBLDF exceeded $12,500, making it our most successful showing at WonderCon in years. CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein, a longtime WonderCon exhibitor, recounts the con and puts it all into perspective after the jump.
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein Discusses The Contested Art & Legal Repercussions of R. v. Matheson
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein talked to Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter about the art at issue in R. v. Matheson, the CBLDF’s legal case that recently concluded with criminal charges against the client being dropped.
Brownstein sees this as a call to action for comics lovers to stand united in the face of censorship. He said:
This is one of those rare moments where Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately,” is the most potent and accurate assessment of our current situation. Even today I saw a lot of discussion that it’s okay for authorities to prosecute the really icky stuff. But when you look at the actual images Ryan was prosecuted for, it’s clear that the authorities have a much lower threshold for what constitutes the really icky stuff than the average person who’s ready to sell their fellow comic book reader, retailer or artist down the river.
If Ryan were convicted for possessing that Moe 48 Positions, what chance does the average indy cartoonist going to TCAF have of carrying stuff into the show without hassle, much less fear of arrest? What hope does a retailer who orders from the adult order form for his store have when that stuff is in his internet cache? We’re a field that thrives on the power of the static image, and while our communities have our own understandings of what’s acceptable and what’s taboo, our understanding may not always square with that of local law enforcement. I’m not saying these things to stir up fear, I’m saying that equivocating about what kind of censorship is acceptable to us, as individuals, creates cracks in our armor that can bring censorship down on our field as a whole.
Read The Comics Reporter for the full interview.
CBLDF’s Member Appreciation Events At WonderCon!
This weekend the CBLDF is heading out to WonderCon in Anaheim, California, where we’re offering two exclusive thank yous for new and returning members!
Current members or members who sign up during the show get their choice of the CBLDF exclusive cover of Glory #23, signed by writer Joe Keatinge, or a signed Frank Quitely sketch variant of the 2011 CBLDF Liberty Annual.
During the show, CBLDF will also be running our ever-popular Live Art Jam, featuring Jim Lee, Rebekah Isaacs, and Eric Powell. All art from the jam will be auctioned and we’ll have artists sketching at the booth throughout the weekend, so you have a chance to take some amazing art home with you!
After the jump, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein takes you through some of the great things the Fund has planned for WonderCon 2012!